Remembering Henry Howard / Paul Cunningham

This week saw the passing of two Athy men who were associated in my mind with Gaelic football. They died within a day of each other. Henry Howard was President of Athy Gaelic Football Club for many years past. Geraldine Park was his second home and for as long as I can remember Henry devoted his time and energy to the local G.A.A. Club. He was a wonderfully helpful man who met and greeted everyone with a cheerful word or two. He was especially helpful to me while I was organising the recent book fairs on behalf of Athy Lions Club. I got to know Henry and his wife Patricia during the long drawn out campaign to stop the Inner Relief Road planned for construction through the centre of our town. Both were very active members of the development group which consist of concerned residents of the town who worked tirelessly to get the Outer Relief Road built instead of the proposed Inner Relief Road. They were part of the several teams which went from door-to-door canvassing support for a plebiscite of the local people and attended public meetings held over a period of many years in various venues throughout the town. Henry Howard and his wife Patricia were unremitting in their support for what eventually turned out to be a wonderful addition to the road network serving the people of Athy. Henry’s wake was held in the Gaelic Football Club premises where he had spent many years of his long life volunteering on a daily basis. His was a labour of love for the Athy Gaelic Football Club was, as I wrote earlier, his second home. He was elected President of the club approximately 16 years ago and I must claim some indirect involvement in his presidential election. As a member of Athy Gaelic Football Club I attended Annul General Meetings for many years following my return to Athy in 1982. It was at an Annual General Meeting sometime in the mid to late 1980s that I questioned the appropriateness of electing year after year a member of the local Catholic clergy as the club President. It was, I explained, an unnecessary throwback to a time in our history when community leadership understandably came from the educated clergy, but the time had come for lay members to take charge. Looking back over the years since the founding of the Geraldine Club the only clergy man justifiably elected to the presidential position was the local curate and exceptional footballer, Fr. Frank Mitchell. In any event my intervention at that A.G.M. resulted in the election of Tim O’Sullivan as the Club President and in later years the election of Henry Howard. Henry’s passing is a great loss to the Geraldine Club which over the years has benefitted from his involvement and that of so many other men and latterly women. Paul Cunningham for several years was a classmate of mine in the local Christian Brothers School during the 1950s. He left school at an early age but I can still picture in my minds eye Paul’s excellence as a Gaelic footballer. I am reminded of the only time in my school days when the local Christian Brothers School participated in the Leinster Colleges championship. Brother Brett, the Superior, had visions of our Wednesday afternoon football practice in Geraldine Park, resulting in an appearance at Croke Park for the Leinster School Finals. The Athy school team played Moate College on their grounds and we were defeated very heavily. My memory of that day is of Paul Cunningham’s high fielding of the ball, ala Mick O’Connell of Kerry, but his brilliance was not sufficient to save Athy C.B.S. from a humiliating defeat. Paul was chosen for the Kildare County Minor panel and played for a time with Athy G.F.C. and later with Rheban. He emigrated at a young age to London and there he played with Round Towers and Dr. Crokes. I understand he played with Dr. Crokes in a tournament game in Croke Park and during his London playing days was awarded Player of the Year Award. Paul did not achieve the footballing success of his late father Jim ‘Tarman’ Cunningham who won county championship medals with the Athy senior team in 1933 and 1934. The 1930s was the most successful decade for Gaelic footballing in Athy and ‘Tarman’ had with him on the winning teams the likes of Barney Dunne, Paul Matthews and Tommy Mulhall. A further championship title success was achieved in 1937 but by then ‘Tarman’, like his son Paul decades later, had emigrated to England. Our sympathies go to the family and friends of Henry Howard and Paul Cunningham.